Happy Sunday everyone.
Today, in a few hours, our Soaring Spirits Regional Group here in central Massachusetts, will be having our annual Friends-giving gathering. In the past, we have gone to a local restaurant and did a thanksgiving style meal, and it was wonderful. But this year, we are doing it differently, and Im really excited for it. One of our two monthly meetups is sometimes held at a local library, where we have been given a great big private room that also has a kitchen attached. We bring treats and snacks and create a refreshment table, ask people to bring their own coffees or whatever, and we sit and chat. Often for hours. Our group of widowed people loves to chat, because when they walk through our doors, they feel validated and celebrated and understood. They feel friendship and welcoming and connection to other people who are going through some version of what they are going through. They feel hope for their future, or maybe just enough hope to get through the next day or week. These friendships with other widowed people are so powerful, and often end up lasting a lifetime.
We are lucky enough to have our local library offer up use of the entire library today, as they are closed on Sundays to the public. Because we are meeting there as part of a non-profit, they offer this privilege and have given us the key to get inside, and have our own private gathering today. So, this year, my co-leader Allison and I, are hosting a “Friendsgiving Feast Potluck.” Allison is making the turkey and gravy, Im making homemade dressing and corn casserole, and everyone who is coming is bringing their own dish to add to our delicious menu. There will be pies and cookies and butternut squash and potatoes and carrots and string beans and apple cider and so much more for people to enjoy.
More than that, we will set up a place at the table for our widowed friends to feel loved and welcomed and remembered. In our group, we talk a LOT about our people that we lost to death, As we should, and as we will continue to do. But I also think its just as important, if not even more important, that in remembering our people, we dont forget ourselves. Its vital that we dont lose ourselves in these losses, and that we remember that we are here and we are alive and we deserve to live good and meaningful lives with purpose. And we put so much focus on the love of a partner or spouse, which again, is so important. But something else that is equally important – is friendship. Friendship after loss. Honestly, if you let it in, it can save you in ways that you never even imagined. There is nothing quite like a really great friend. And so today, we celebrate each other, and we celebrate friendship. We will toast to those that brought us together (our loved ones who died) , and we will toast to US, surviving and thriving and trying to figure out this new widowed life – together.
